1git-clone(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git clone' [--template=<template_directory>] 13 [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror] 14 [-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--depth <depth>] [--recursive|--recurse-submodules] [--] <repository> 16 [<directory>] 17 18DESCRIPTION 19----------- 20 21Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 22remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 23(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an 24initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's 25currently active branch. 26 27After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 28all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 29arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 30current master branch, if any. 31 32This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 33the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and 34by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 35configuration variables. 36 37 38OPTIONS 39------- 40--local:: 41-l:: 42 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 43 this flag bypasses the normal "git aware" transport 44 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 45 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 46 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 47 to save space when possible. This is now the default when 48 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 49 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 50 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 51 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 52 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 53 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 54 55--no-hardlinks:: 56 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 57 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 58 directory. 59 60--shared:: 61-s:: 62 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 63 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 64 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 65 with the source repository. The resulting repository 66 starts out without any object of its own. 67+ 68*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 69it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 70repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 71other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 72source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 73These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as `git commit`) 74which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 75If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 76then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 77+ 78Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 79cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 80in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 81It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 82default. 83+ 84If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 85its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 86objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 87 88--reference <repository>:: 89 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 90 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 91 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 92 an already existing repository as an alternate will 93 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 94 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 95+ 96*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option. 97 98--quiet:: 99-q:: 100 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 101 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 102 command when given. 103 104--verbose:: 105-v:: 106 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 107 to the standard error stream. 108 109--progress:: 110 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 111 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 112 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 113 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 114 115--no-checkout:: 116-n:: 117 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 118 119--bare:: 120 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 121 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 122 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 123 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 124 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 125 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 126 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 127 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 128 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 129 configuration variables are created. 130 131--mirror:: 132 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 133 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 134 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 135 remote branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 136 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 137 target repository. 138 139--origin <name>:: 140-o <name>:: 141 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 142 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 143 144--branch <name>:: 145-b <name>:: 146 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 147 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 148 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 149 be checked out. 150 151--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 152-u <upload-pack>:: 153 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 154 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 155 run on the other end. 156 157--template=<template_directory>:: 158 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 159 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 160 161--depth <depth>:: 162 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 163 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 164 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 165 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 166 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 167 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 168 as patches. 169 170--recursive:: 171--recurse-submodules:: 172 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 173 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 174 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 175 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 176 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 177 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 178 179<repository>:: 180 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 181 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 182 repositories. 183 184<directory>:: 185 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 186 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 187 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 188 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 189 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 190 191:git-clone: 1 192include::urls.txt[] 193 194Examples 195-------- 196 197* Clone from upstream: 198+ 199------------ 200$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 201$ cd my2.6 202$ make 203------------ 204 205 206* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 207+ 208------------ 209$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 210$ cd ../copy 211$ git show-branch 212------------ 213 214 215* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 216+ 217------------ 218$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 219 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 220 my2.7 221$ cd my2.7 222------------ 223 224 225* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 226+ 227------------ 228$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 229------------ 230 231 232* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 233+ 234------------ 235$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 236 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 237------------ 238 239 240Author 241------ 242Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 243 244 245Documentation 246-------------- 247Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 248 249 250GIT 251--- 252Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite